Jeffrey Ellis - Page 156

Roles are available for actors, dancers and singers of all ages (children, teens, and adults). Auditionees should prepare 16 bars of an up-tempo song. Pre-recorded accompaniment is preferred, but an accompanist will also be provided, and auditionees should be dressed in clothing appropriate for movement and be prepared to learn a short dance combination. Resumes and headshots will be accepted, but they are not required.

Written by artistic director Trish Crist, The Nashville Monologues 'explores the dark side of diversity through Halloween season performances of frightening, dramatic, revealing and (yes) comic monologues inspired by public submission' of those personal accounts.

Even the presence of Melissa Gilbert - who so memorably played 'Half-Pint' in the Little House TV series of the 1970s and '80s and now is cast as Caroline Ingalls - can't save this musical from mediocrity. Try as they might, Gilbert and her castmates unfortunately just can't get past Sheinkin's overly earnest and plodding book, Portman's completely unmemorable score or Di Novelli's clumsily crafted lyrics. Sheinkin's book does offer some glimmer of hope: There are some lovely moments to be found in the script, but they are too few and far between. Portman's score fares worse, since there is not one melody that can be recalled and all the musical numbers sound alike. Di Novelli's lyrics are even worse. When 'I'm sick with wind sickness' is the only lyric you can remember, you know the show's in trouble. And, clearly, the material is not served well by director Francesca Zambello's seemingly uninspired staging (save for some creatively conceived horse-racing sequences).

'Alexander knows it is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day when he wakes up with gum in his hair, and he is right! Things only get worse as the day goes on: his best friend bails on him, there's no dessert in his lunch bag, there's lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV! The only reasonable response is to move to Australia. Judith Viorst adapted her own award-winning children's book into a marvelous musical that is wacky, wild, and wonderfully wise!'

Burr's even-handed direction and his unerring eye and ear for what is truly funny ensure that King's circa 1940s script is winningly interpreted and offers further proof that good farce, no matter its age, remains highly entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny. With Burr's expertly cast ensemble enacting the ridiculously absurd situations, you have a winning combination that will delight audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Since its preeminence among the city's artistic entities became de facto, Nashville Ballet has consistently launched the real artistic season in Music City each year -- and with the return of Giselle to the company's program after a seven-year hiatus, the 2009-2010 season is off to a rousing start. One of the most beloved works from the classical repertoire, Giselle is a challenging undertaking for any company, but thanks to the vision of artistic director Paul Vasterling, Nashville Ballet's production is a visual feast, featuring stunning costumes, evocative lighting and gorgeous scenery.

With Tennessee Repertory Theatre celebrating its 25th year as one of the nation's premier regional theatres, it's only appropriate that the season kicks off with a revival of Robert Harling's iconic Southern comedy Steel Magnolias, running October 3-24 at the Andrew Johnson Theatre at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Kidman, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, hoped to use her celebrity to help focus Washington lawmakers' attention on the issue of violence against women. The subcommittee was holding hearings Wednesday on the 'International Violence Against Women Act' which is expected to be voted on by members of Congress within the next several weeks.

Memphis and Nashville will be on the travel itinterary of National Endowment for the Arts chair Rocco Landesman in November as part of his 'Art Works' Tour announced Wednesday. Landesman announced the launch of his nationwide tour as he delivered the keynote address to close the 2009 national Grantmakers in the Arts Conference: Navigating the Arts of Change in Brooklyn, New York.

Giselle, one of the world's most beloved ballets for the past 150 years, will open the 2009-2010 season for the critically acclaimed Nashville Ballet, October 23-25, at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's James K. Polk Theatre.

'This is a show about agoraphobia, adultery, '80s nostalgia, strippers, roadkill and hysterical pregnancy...it's everything a musical should be,' according to Cathy Sanborn Street, executive artistic director for the company. Directed by Larry Tobias, performances will be held at 'Armadillo Acres,' located at 1031 Elm Hill Pike, just off the Fessler's Lane exit of I-24. Curtain is at 8 p.m. for Friday and Saturday shows; at 5 p.m. for Sunday performances.

Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) and Nashville Children's Theater are partnering to present the Fresh Filmmakers Competition for students between the ages of 13 and 18 years old-this time with a 'diary' twist. The call-for-entries continues through January 4. Finalists will be screened at NCT on Saturday, February 6, 2010, as part of a joint evening that will include a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Actor Jay Doolittle and three accomplices will bring to life favorites such as 'The Cask of Amantillado,' 'The Masque of the Red Death,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Raven,' allowing audiences to 'descend iinto the macabre madness of murderers, merry-makers and haunted souls described in grosteque detail by a mater of language.'

With consistently superb casting and amazingly focused direction, Avery Crozier's Eat The Runt is given its due in the play's Nashville premiere by GroundWorks Theatre. Now onstage through October 24 at the Darkhorse Theatre, the comedy is a smartly written treatise on the arts, workplace manipulation, 'human resources' and political correctness-heady subjects all that combine for one of the funniest plays of contemporary vintage that we've seen.

As I entered the theatre itself to find my seat, I came face-to-face for the first time in lord knows how long with Reba Perkins, one of my favorite Nashville actresses, who now works part-time as an usher for TPAC. Reba's genuinely heartfelt response to seeing me was heartwarming and reassuring. Instantly, my mind went back to the first time I had the opportunity to review Reba's onstage work, in the Circle Players production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. She gave a wonderfully nuanced performance that garnered rave reviews all around and resulted in her being nominated for a First Night Award that season.

Nashville's Street Theatre Company will hold auditions this weekend for a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It, written by Cori Laemmel.

Roles are available for actors, dancers and singers of all ages (children, teens, and adults). Auditionees should prepare 16 bars of an up-tempo song. Pre-recorded accompaniment is preferred, but an accompanist will also be provided, and auditionees should be dressed in clothing appropriate for movement and be prepared to learn a short dance combination. Resumes and headshots will be accepted, but they are not required.

The inspired lunacy of Michael Frayn's Noises Off is a good choice for any theatre company seeking to offer a glimpse into the wacky antics of life on the boards and Circle Players continues its 60th annual season with a largely successful production that features the aforementioned stellar performances of Maggie Pitt and Jeremy Maxwell in the roles of Poppy and Tim (the techies in Frayn's show-within-a-show structure). Pitt and Maxwell deliver disarmingly natural performances amid all the hilarious hijinks taking place in Frayn's wonderfully funny farce and they very nearly-actually, they do it outright-steal the show.

'ACT 1 is doing things a little differently this year and asking all interested directors to submit a play he or she is particularly intertested in directing,' Hade explained. 'Whether you are a first-time director or an experienced one, the ACT 1 Board invites you to submit a script along with a proposal.'

A. Sean O'Connell will direct the Middle Tennessee premiere of Avery Crozier's Eat the Runt, opening Friday, October 16 at Darkhorse Theatre, 4610 Charlotte Avenue in Nashville. The contemporary comedy will continue at Darkhorse through October 24. In the play, 'Crozier toys with ideas of perception, political correctness and societal and cultural norms as we follow a job applicant through an art museum interview process,' O'Connell said.